ECO-TOWNS: INFORMATION NOTE ON ECO-TOWN "ADDITIONALITY"

Written by Councillor Alan Dean on Sun 27th Apr 2008

Varying opinions have been expressed about whether central government's proposal for a 5-8,000 homes (or more) eco-town at North East Elsenham would be additional to existing housing targets. Uttlesford's current published target is 8,000 homes between 2001 and 2021 as laid down in the East of England Regional Spatial Strategy. This number is a moving feast as the council also has to plan in its LDF 15 years ahead, which today means until 2023/24. The annual required rate of delivery averages about 425 homes per annum and probably higher towards the end of this period. Taking account of those already built or planned, the current outstanding total for which locations need to be found for the period until 2024 is 4,200 homes. There is no reason at present to expect the targets to end in 2024. The next full revision of the regional plan will run from 2011 to 2031 and growth will continue and annual rates may be higher than now.

Central government's recent pronouncements about whether existing targets can be set against those for an eco-town are far from unambiguous. The understanding by some people that Uttlesford's outstanding target of some 4,200 homes by 2024 would be incorporated within the eco-town probably stems from the following government press release:

"We expect eco towns to contribute significantly to help to meet that target for additional housing and we want to assure local authorities which include an eco-town in their future housing plans that it will, of course, count towards their future housing targets, consistent with our national figure of 240,000 homes per year by 2016. Some authorities are already taking forward development plans which go a long way towards this level and in these areas an authority will be able to count an appropriate proportion of the eco-town towards its local plan target." The important words in the above are 'additional housing'.

Another understanding is taken from the more detailed statements contained in the government's consultation document issued on 3rd April at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/livinggreenerfuture

On page 8 at section 3 the document says 'eco-towns must be new settlements, separate and distinct from existing towns but well linked to them. THEY NEED TO BE ADDITIONAL TO EXISTING PLANS with a minimum target of 5,000 homes'.

Page 43 of the consultation document at section 6 refers to 'additionality of housing number'.

It says that currently planned housing numbers in the regional plan are not high enough. When the present regional spatial strategy is reviewed by 2011 there will be higher targets per annum that will cover the remaining regional plan period from 2011 to 2021. Planning will also get underway in due course to cover the years to 2031. The eco-town housing totals are expected to 'contribute significantly to help meet those REVISED targets'.

The implication is that the rate of housing growth is expected to be at a faster rate than now and that the eco-town programme is an important way in which the government intends to boost house numbers in future. This means that homes in an Uttlesford eco-town would be counted against the predicted higher target above the current outstanding targets of 2,600 by 2021 or 4,200 by 2024. The new target for Uttlesford will not be known this year but is must be assumed that it will be higher than now and that an eco-town may one way to deliver it.

The eco-town, if approved, could be well under way towards reaching 5,000 homes built by 2016, some five years before the present plan period ends in 2021 and when currently 2,600 extra homes are needed. This is because if a new settlement is to be anything like sustainable, it has to be built quickly or people will be living on a soulless housing estate with few local facilities.

It is unlikely that housing growth in Uttlesford will come to a near halt around 2016 when NE Elsenham might be nearing at least its first stage of completion as the whole intention of the government is to continue to ramp up home numbers. Similarly, any idea that all future development in Uttlesford district would be concentrated at Elsenham/Henham only is not plausible or desirable for social reasons. So even if there were a slow-down elsewhere between 2011 and 2016 whilst NE Elsenham were built and even though more than the current housing target total would have been built by 2016, after that year it would be likely that the rate of development elsewhere would increase. How much would depend on how large the next set of housing totals for Uttlesford are and whether any of the current allocation and not just the unknown future allocation could be offset against the eco-town total. The new totals will not be known for a few more years' time so it would be difficult for the council to cease to plan for other locations outside NE Elsenham, especially so when current council opinion seems to be moving against the concept of a new settlement and the eco-town is intended to be additional to existing plans.

Some of the criteria mentioned above (and their impact on Uttlesford) may well become clearer during the summer of 2008 as the government develops its ideas on eco-towns. In the meantime, it would be unwise to assume that the suggestion of an eco-town at NE Elsenham is a recipe for no growth elsewhere in Uttlesford.

Cllr Alan Dean

Issue 1 14 April 2008